Pauline Hanson (Queensland, Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party) | Hansard source

I move:

That the following matters be referred to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee for inquiry and report by 1 September 2024:

The matter of a popular vote, in the form of a referendum, on the matter of enshrining the right to free speech in the Australian Constitution, with particular reference to:

(a) an assessment of the content and implications of a question to be put to electors;

(b) an examination of the resources required to enact such an activity, including the question of the contribution of Commonwealth funding to the 'yes' and 'no' campaigns;

(c) an assessment of the impact of the timing of such an activity, including the opportunity for it to coincide with a general election; and

(d) any other related matters.

Democracies like Australia are underpinned by certain inalienable human rights. These include the freedom to associate with who we want, the freedom to travel where we will, the right to believe what we want and follow the religion that we choose, and the freedom to assemble peacefully. I strongly believe that the most important right we have is freedom of speech. This is the right to express our views, our beliefs and our opinions free from sanction or penalty by the state.

I've been involved in Australian politics for almost 30 years, since my time on the Ipswich City Council. If there's one lesson I have learned in all that time it's that freedom of speech is something we can never, ever take for granted. As Thomas Jefferson said, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty. He was right. There will always be those in power who will seek to silence opposition, dissent or criticism. There will always be those in power who seek greater control over us by limiting or attacking our freedoms. So there must always be people like us watching for these attacks, working to protect our freedoms and preserve Australian democracy.

My own career as a public political figure is an example of the need for eternal vigilance to protect freedom of speech. My public comments in 1996 about enormous and unequal taxpayer assistance provided to Indigenous Australians stated a truth that those in power did not want told. For speaking that truth, I was disendorsed by John Howard but decided to continue my campaign for Oxley as an independent. I was strongly encouraged by the many Australians who agreed with me and wanted equality.

My maiden speech to parliament in 1996 also contained truth that was uncomfortable for those in power. I spoke about increasing immigration from Asia—and I was right. Today, more than 17 per cent of Australians identify as Asian. The top two source countries for Australian immigration are India and China, and seven of the top 10 source countries are in Asia. I spoke about corruption in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission—and I was right. ATSIC was abolished for this very reason eight years later. I spoke about the industry that has grown around Indigenous funding—and I was right. We're now being asked to enshrine this $30 billion industry in the Constitution. I spoke against the economic rationalism and globalism that was destroying Australian industry and manufacturing—and I was right. So much of it has moved offshore since then, including our entire car-manufacturing industry. I spoke against the foreign ownership of land and property in Australia and demanded reduced immigration—and I was right. These are the major factors driving our current housing crisis.

Back then and to this day, I've had the guts to say what Australians were thinking, and many Australians have responded. More than a million people gave One Nation their first-preference vote in 1998. But, because of the threat this posed to the new Howard Liberal government, it was decided by those in power that I had to be silenced. They decided to take away the power that freedom of speech gave me to speak the truth on behalf of the Australian people. You all know the story. With John Howard's support, Tony Abbott created a trust fund to attack and silence me by using the courts. It ended up with me spending 11 weeks in a maximum-security prison for electoral fraud before all convictions were quashed on appeal. The president of that court of appeal made it clear that Howard and other senior politicians had attempted to interfere with the independence of the courts for cynical political motives. I was called, 'Australia's first political prisoner'. In a nutshell, it was a naked attempt to control me, to put me away in some dark place where I did not have the freedom to speak. It was also an attempt to silence and marginalise the many Australians for whom I speak—or spoke. The whole episode was a preview of what has become much more common today, suppressing free speech and repeating approved speech to control the narrative.

We've seen people denied access to hired venues and town halls because they've exercised freedom of speech to say things the establishment and self-appointed thought police disagree with. We have seen people even denied entry into Australia and other countries for exactly the same reason. The tragedy is that this suppression of free speech has actually been effective. Many people these days are frightened to say what they're thinking. Australians of faith feel compelled to silence about their beliefs in public or the workplace for fear of persecution. Australians feel stifled and disenfranchised, unable to express a political opinion that departs from the orthodox narrative.

Much of the Australian media, especially the ABC, have been complicit in the suppression of freedom of speech. They help those in power control the narrative with selective reporting and biased editorial comment. We saw it all during the COVID-19 pandemic, a subservient media and governments working with them to censor dissent over lockdowns and vaccine mandates. And now we have a government about to introduce legislation under the guise of 'misinformation' and 'disinformation' and formalise the suppression of free speech into Australian law. The Australian Constitution is not a bill of rights like that of the United States. It is effectively a rule book for government. However, it directly implies certain rights, like the right to vote and freedom of religion. This referral is to examine enshrining for all time the right to freedom of speech in our Constitution.

As I said, I feel that the Australia that I grew up in, able to have a voice and an opinion, has been stripped away from us. And there is the fear-mongering, especially when we talk now of the misinformation and disinformation bill that was first introduced by the coalition government and is now taken on by the Labor Party. If we do go forward with this, this is a great disservice to our democracy. We spoke earlier today about our shrines being vandalised and the damage that has been done to them. If we reflect back on that, it's really about the people that have fought and sacrificed their lives for our freedom—most importantly, as I said, our freedom of speech. Are we going to just ignore their sacrifices? Because what we are doing is suppressing people to have an opinion and to stand up and have that opinion.

People are in fear. It's quite amazing when I see what happens when people lack confidence in themselves. They feel they're not educated enough or feel they shouldn't be saying anything because those around will actually call them names, as I've been called on many occasions: 'You're a racist. How dare you raise about immigration coming into Australia? That's racism.' I remember straight after my election on 3 March, the next day, a reporter from the Australian rang me up to do an interview. I spoke to him. The headline the next day—on the Monday, 5 March—was 'Hanson will not represent Aboriginal people'. That was an absolute lie. The fact is that it did go to court. It was before Sir Ronald Wilson. Upon hearing the full tape and the conversation I'd had with that journo, he actually ruled in my favour. It was misreporting by the Australian which just happened constantly.

Even in this chamber today, there are the jibes and comments that I get, which are based on misinformation, or personal attacks because it suits you to do that. But you deny me my right to stand in this chamber when you call out those comments. You deny me my right to freedom of speech on behalf of the Australian people, and especially those people of Queensland who voted for me to represent them in this chamber. You're denying debate, and that's what this place is all about.

You think that you can bring in these laws and suppress people because you don't want them commenting on Facebook. That's what's happening now. If any political comments are posted on Facebook pages then Facebook shuts them down. So you're really slapping in the face those men and women who have fought for our freedom—and, most importantly, our freedom of speech. You're not doing anyone a service. Many countries around the world would clearly love—and their people would dearly love—to have the democracy that we have, but we are letting it slip through our fingers because of people in this place who feel it's their right to suppress: if you don't agree with someone, then you've got to shout them down, you've got to call them names, you've got to have a go at them. How dare you say that?

It's even happening in our universities and education centres. Many students have written to me over the years, or I've run into them with their parents. Do you know what they tell me? They say, 'We actually wanted to do an assignment about you, Pauline Hanson, in the classroom, but because we did it on you, against what the teacher thought and their own political persuasion, we were marked down.' They were marked down purely because it was done about me. In a recent one the assignment was: do an assignment on your hero. Guess who the kid picked? Me. I'm very honoured that he chose me, but the poor kid—14 years of age, from a school on the Sunshine Coast—was marked down. He was actually criticised by the teacher. She said to him that I'm controversial. I couldn't possibly be his hero. I'm too controversial. But he still stood up for himself and, because he stood up for himself and he made his comments, he was then pulled before the principal, and the principal gave him detention.

That wasn't the first one, and I'm sure it won't be the last, because I've heard from these kids before. You're even suppressing the kids in our educational centres, in our schools and in our universities. I hear it from university students all the time. They say, 'We have to think a certain way and we have to answer the questions a certain way; otherwise we're marked down.' You're stifling growth. You're stifling debate. The reason we have to stop this is that it's only through debate—because of people's different ideas and opinions—that we will ever get good government.

In the workforce, people also have a diversity of opinions, and they must be heard. The public will make up their own minds on whether or not they agree with you. The public will judge you, not people from the media or people on whatever side of politics you're from. It's not about that. If you've got a fair argument then produce your argument and produce your debate, but allow everyone the right to have their say freely, instead of calling people names and pointing fingers at people and belittling them. It sickens me. It's why our country is in a hell of a mess, and it's why, when I talk to the older generation, which I do all the time, they keep asking me: 'What the hell has happened to our country? Why are we in the mess that we are in?'

Do you know what I keep thinking? I think it starts here, in this place. I find that, for most of the people here, the way you vote is not the way that you think, because a lot of people here are too gutless to stand up for what they truly believe in. They are in fear of being suppressed by their own peers or by their own parties, or the fact is that they are just yes people and they follow the sheep. They don't realise how much of a privilege it is to be in this place and hold the positions that we hold. That's why I sleep well at night, and when I'm finished in this place I will reflect on my time in here and know that I stood for what I believed was morally right.

But there is one thing that you will never take from me. You will never take away my right to freedom of speech. I will continue to fight for that for the Australian people, with honour and with pride, to the best of my ability. People don't always agree with me on all the things that I say, but they respect the fact that I stand up on principle and I say what I believe in. A lot of times, I wear my heart on my sleeve, because I love my country. I care about the Australian people. That's why I'm here. I will continue to fight for freedom of speech for them.